


Don’t Be Scared (I’m Right Here)

by milevenwalkie



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Post Season 3, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, classic nightmare fic, el’s bby, mike is always there for el, mike wheler is the best boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 00:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20380930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milevenwalkie/pseuds/milevenwalkie
Summary: El wasn’t a stranger to nightmares, but that didn’t mean she was used to waking up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe.Luckily, Mike is there to help her through it.Aka mike comforts el after a nightmare fic





	Don’t Be Scared (I’m Right Here)

She woke up gasping for air. 

Everything was dark. It was so dark that she couldn’t even see, so her mind just kept replaying the same images over and over again in her mind. 

Watching as they close the door. Feeling her fists pound against it. Screaming for him to help her. 

Papa. 

It was too much. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Why was this happening to her?

El wasn’t a stranger to nightmares, she used to get them all the time back when it had only been a few weeks after she got out of the lab. But now, it had been over two years, and even though she had stopped getting them, they came back after the death of her adoptive father. That, and all the other traumatic events that happened on that night in the Fourth of July. 

She rubbed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths, just like Hop told her to. 

Hop. The thought of him brought even more tears to her eyes. 

Moments later, the girl found herself curling up under the covers bawling, now about not only the bad dreams about her childhood trauma but about her dad as well. 

Gone- she thought - gone gone gone gone go-

“El?”

She snapped her eyes open. Lifting the covers over her head just enough to see where the voice was coming from, her heart ached at the sight of Mike Wheeler. He was wearing blue pyjama pants with a grey Star Wars shirt, and his hair was tousled from sleeping on the floor at Will’s room, yet to El he had never looked more perfect. 

“Mike” she whispered, as the young man came into the room and stepped closer to her. 

“El” he was so close he reached his hand out to tuck a curl beneath her ear “what’s wrong? what happened?”

She really didn’t mean to wake him up. The last thing she wanted was to have him worrying about her, even if she kind of loved it when he did. 

“I’m sorry” she choked “I didn’t want to wake you guys up and ruin your sleepover.”

Mike shook his head in response “Don’t worry, Will’s still asleep. You didn’t ruin anything. Scoot over”. He spoke so softly she wasn’t even sure she heard him correctly, but when he lifted one end of the blanket to get in, she smiled gently as she rolled over to make space for him. 

Mike got in quickly, as if he didn’t want to spend another second being apart from her, even if it was only a few inches. His hands found their way around her body, one coming up to rest on the small of her back and the other beneath her cheek, wiping away a small tear that was still there. 

“Bad dream?” he whispered. He looked so lovely illuminated only by the moonlight streaming through her window, she started thinking she might still be dreaming. 

But when his fingers moved from her cheeks to rest lightly over her lips she knew it was real. 

“Yeah. It wasn’t so bad though” she tried to get her voice to match his gentle tone, but it still came out high pitched after her earlier meltdown. 

“Hey. You’re safe now, you know? And I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you” his eyes were looking into hers with such an intensity that she felt the urge to look away. “Don’t be scared” 

“I’m not scared” she replied, moving her gaze back to him. 

“El, ‘Friends don’t lie’, remember?” She could catch the glimpse of a smile on his face. 

“Uh-huh, look who’s talking”. She giggled at his panicked expression as he recalled the last time he said that particular phrase. Still, she inched closer to press her lips against his “It’s ok, it doesn’t matter now”.  
And it really didn’t. She understood now the context of the situation and why Mike acted the way that he did after Hopper threatened him. Plus, if it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have made it this far without falling apart after everything that happened since the events of a few months prior. He was always there for her to lean on. 

“I love you” he said softly, running his fingers through her hair “and for the record, I still feel really sorry about what happened”

“I know” she kissed his cheek “i love you too”

After giving her one last smile, Mike figured he should probably go back to Will’s room. Still, when he started getting up, El shot her arm out quickly to grab at his wrist. 

“Will you stay with me? You can go back to Will’s room in the morning I just- I really don’t want to be alone right now” 

When he didn’t respond right away, she feared that maybe she made him uncomfortable, or that he would say it was too inappropriate for them to sleep next to each other, but then a second later he answered

“Of course. Don’t worry about it”

Squeezing her hand, Mike laid back down and wrapped his arms around El as she nuzzled her head on his shoulder. 

Maybe the past would always hunt her, but she was lucky to have someone that loved her to help her through it.

**Author's Note:**

> first fic I’ve written! not so sure I’m happy with how this turned out but I thought I would share it anyways, since the fandom’s been so quiet recently. hope you enjoyed! :)


End file.
